Investigation on Ambipolar Current Suppression Using a Stacked Gate in an L-shaped Tunnel Field-Effect Transistor

Abstract

L-shaped tunnel field-effect transistor (TFET) provides higher on-current than a conventional TFET through band-to-band tunneling in the vertical direction of the channel. However, L-shaped TFET is disadvantageous for low-power applications because of increased off-current due to the large ambipolar current. In this paper, a stacked gate L-shaped TFET is proposed for suppression of ambipolar current. Stacked gates can be easily implemented using the structural features of L-shaped TFET, and on- and off-current can be controlled separately by using different gates located near the source and the drain, respectively. As a result, the suppression of ambipolarity is observed with respect to work function difference between two gates by simulation of the band-to-band tunneling generation. Furthermore, the proposed device suppresses ambipolar current better than existing ambipolar current suppression methods. In particular, low drain resistance is achieved as there is no need to reduce drain doping, which leads to a 7% enhanced on-current. Finally, we present the fabrication method for a stacked gate L-shaped TFET.